To Sir John Sinclair Washington, June 30, 1803

DEAR SIR,

-- It is so long since I have had the pleasure of
writing to you, that it would be vain to look back
to dates to
connect the old and the new. Yet I ought not to pass over my
acknowledgments to you for various
publications received from time to
time, and with great satisfaction and thankfulness.
I send you a
small one in return, the work of a very unlettered farmer, yet
valuable, as it relates
plain facts of importance to farmers. You
will discover that Mr. Binns is an enthusiast for the use
of gypsum.
But there are two facts which prove he has a right to be so: 1. He
began poor, andhas made
himself tolerably rich by his farming alone.
2. The county of Loudon, in which he lives, had been
so exhausted and
wasted by bad husbandry, that it began to depopulate, the inhabitants
going
Southwardly in quest of better lands. Binns' success has
stopped that emigration.
It is now becoming one of the most
productive counties of the State of Virginia, and the price given for
the lands is multiplied manifold.

We are still uninformed here whether you are again at war.
Bonaparte has produced such a state of things in Europe as it would
seem difficult for him to relinquish in
any sensible degree, and
equally dangerous for Great Britain to suffer to go on, especially if
accompanied
by maritime preparations on his part. The events which
have taken place in France have lessened in the
American mind the
motives of interest which it felt in that revolution, and its amity
towards that country
now rests on its love of peace and commerce. We
see, at the same time, with great concern, the
position in which
Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were any
disaster to deprive
mankind of the benefit of such a bulwark against
the torrent which has for some time been bearing down
all before it.
But her power and powers at sea seem to render everything safe in the
end. Peace is
our passion, and the wrongs might drive us from it.
We prefer trying ever other just principles,
right and safety,
before we would recur to war.

I hope your agricultural institution goes on with
success. I
consider you as the author of all the good it shall do. A better
idea has never been carried
into practice. Our agricultural society
has at length formed itself. Like our American Philosophical
Society, it is voluntary, and unconnected with the public, and is
precisely an execution of the plan I
formerly sketched to you. Some
State societies have been formed heretofore; the others will do the
same
. Each State society names two of its members of Congress to be
their members in the Central society,
which is of course together
during the sessions of Congress. They are to select matter from the
proceedings of the State societies, and to publish it; so that their
publications may be called l'esprit des
societes d'agriculture, &c.
The Central society was formed the last winter only, so that it will
be some
time before they get under way. Mr. Madison, the Secretary
of State, was elected their President.

Recollecting with great satisfaction our friendly intercourse
while I was in Europe, I nourish the
hope it still preserves a place
in your mind; and with my salutations, I pray you to accept
assurances of my constant attachment and high respect.